A Few Months

The past few months have been, hmmm, different.

This spring and summer is the first time I've been off from officiating in 2 years. The previous couple of years I had officiated in the Arena Football 2 league but suffered a bad ankle injury in the last game of the year. I took this season off to let it heal.

With that said I haven't been bored by any means. For a few weeks I officiated one of my favorite sports, Flag Football. It was a youth league on Saturday mornings. It was nice as well because the parents were very calm.

I've also officiated some Men's basketball games and some AAU basketball.

For the first time our crew was selected to officiate our tri-state's high school all-star football game in early June. It was a Thursday night and the weather was awesome. Let me say it was a very exciting game.

The halftime score was 10-7, but it was fireworks city in the second half. There were some special rules for this game. Only so many guys could blitz and had to do it a certain way. We also played according to the rules for the upcoming season so two penalties were enforced for horse-collar tackles.

For the most part I felt great out there. Definitely had to shake off some rust. We did have one situation on the goalline that I may have missed. I plan to borrow a tape to see if I missed it and will work on improving so it doesn't happen again.

Next week I start officiating in a 7 on 7 league. This will be a nice tune-up before it's full go in August. Next thing you know it will be time to attend our football meetings.

Down Time

It has been nice to have some time off from the hardcore officiating and spend it with the family. However, I have had a peculiar couple of months. I'll be back shortly to talk some officiating stuff that may peak your interest.

Lakota West Offseason Duals

I had the pleasure of officiating and off season dual wrestling tournament at Lakota West a couple of Saturdays ago.

We worked our tails off. We had 6 officials on six mats with no break and 8 rounds of hardcore Varsity type matches. There were several state placers and champs in the house. This made for some stellar match-ups.

I ended up officiating the match for first place between Fairfield and Harrison. It was a pretty long day for all of us and all of the officials hadn't officiated for over a month. However, I don't think we acquired to much rust and for the most part it was a smooth day.

The tournament director had me get the officials for this event, so I was able to get some fresh guys and let some of rookies from our association get some Varsity experience. One of them had the most intense dual of the day between Mason and Fairfield.
The second to last match was the 215 weight class that went into overtime. The Mason wrestler had 30 seconds to get up and there were some tough scrambles that put the young official in unique situations. He had both benches going crazy but he stayed strong on his calls and looked poised out there. The Fairfield wrestler ended up riding his opponent out and then his teammate pinned in the following match at 275 lbs. This gave Fairfield the victory and eventually they won the whole tournament.
I had the chance to observe overtime of the 215 match and after the official walked off the mat, I looked him in the face and said, "You said you wanted eventually do the big matches, that's a good start. You still want too?" We shared a laugh. We actually grew up together in high school. Back then we were friends one day and ready to do battle the next. We laugh about those days now. Glad to help him anyway that I can in the officiating process as well as any other official, fan or wrestler for that matter.

Since then I've only officiated Flag football. For now I'm not scheduled to officiate wrestling again until late May.

But I still keep up with the sport and like to stay in tune with new rule changes or anything else that may be going on.

Been awhile

This is the longest stretch I've gone without posting since I started the blog.

I've been extremely busy in my personal life.

A few weeks ago my wife, son, and I got to go to the State Championships here in Ohio and it was a blast as usual.

When I told people at work that I was going to be off for the rest of week and said that it's my favorite weekend of the year they thought I was joking. I explained to them that it's my wife's too.

It was nice to be able to sit back and enjoy the tournament as a fan of wrestling. Since my wife and I have been married, we have been to 3 out of 4 State tournaments. It is so impressive how well the tournament is ran. It stays right on schedule.

There were some unbelievable matches of course and the Semi-finals and consolations Semi-finals were just as good as the finals. We chatted it up with fans and some of the parents of the wrestlers.

We had a pretty extensive conversation with David Taylor's father and let me say that the man knows his wrestling. My wife really liked him. It's good to see a parent like this and not all over their child obnoxiously.

Since the tournament the only officiating I've done is one night of basketball and one day of flag football.

This Saturday I'll be at Lakota West for an offseason Varsity dual tournament. That will be fun and we'll be working hard because it will be 6 officials on 6 mats.

It's already been a few weeks since I've got on the mat and it doesn't take long to get cobwebs. However, it'll be ok. I'm ready to rock!

Wrestling Division III Districts

Last Sunday I had a warm-up for this weekend's Districts. The youth district at Mason was awesome and the little guys were going at it.

But this past weekend at Kettering Fairmont high school was full go for everyone! Let me say that this was my first District that I officiated in. Not bragging by any means but I've had several coaches ask me why haven't I got a District or I should be reffing Districts. It's nice to hear but doesn't mean much until you actually do it and do it well.

I definitely felt like this was my strongest weekend of the season and I'm very glad about that because I know the kids are depending on their own skills but definitely want us to be on our 'A' game.

We had 10 officials for 4 mats and at 3pm Friday it was time to get started.

I would have to say my peers had a great showing as well. Of course it's expected because all of us had to be voted in and some of the guys were state officials. For the most part, the coaches didn't get to upset over the weekend. Just battling for their kids.

Friday night we wrestled the first and second round of Championships and one consolation round.


There definitely is a sequence of events that stands out to me during the tournament. Of course the championship semi-finals and championship finals were awesome. But let me tell you that the most electric and loudest the gym got was during the consolation semi-finals. The intensity was so thick. I can feel the adrenaline trying to creep back up typing this.

The kids and coaches were leaving everything out there on the mat and the fans were screaming hoarse. Just like most of the rounds we had two officials on the mat focused like no other.

There was serious passion, tears, disappointment, and overcome of joy to the near point of collapsing. This round was it for some of them. Win and you punch your ticket to the dance, lose and you go home. Man you feel for the kids but we had a job to do.

It was an honor and a blast to be a part of. I got a long well with all of the officials and we seemed to work well together. I will see some of them at our banquet in a few weeks. Bob, Bruce, Dan, Dick, Galen, Mike, Remy, Mike, and Rick, it was fun officiating with you guys and Thanks for helping bring the season to a positive close. You can be my wing man anytime. (Yeah Dan I know it's cheesy.)

See some of you at State next week.

To all of the readers, I'll still be blogging in the offseason even though I'm taking off from Arena 2 this year. I'll actually be officiating the Ourway Jr. High State this Sunday.

Well if I can convince my wife to be cool about it. Lol!

Special Thanks to Lisa Lesh for the pics!